essay

Melissa Guerrero

People can protect their self from AIDS by using protection each time they have sex, by being tested each time they get a new partner and by being celibate. In this paper I’m going to write about from who was the first human that was detected with HIV, and different ways so you can protect yourself from getting infected with HIV. I’m also going to talk about the different ways someone can get infected with HIV & AIDS.

The earliest known case of infection with HIV-1 in a human was detected in the late 1980’s. A number of gay men in New York and California suddenly began to develop rare opportunistic infections and cancers that seemed stubbornly resistant to any treatment, since no one knew about the virus at the time it was hard for doctors to know what these men had. Another person who was infected by the virus around that same time as these men from New York were, was a Canadian flight assistant his name was Gaetan Dugas, who purportedly knowingly infected as many as 250 men a year. However, many people believe that the first human infection occurred about 1930. The earliest known infection of an identified human being dates back to 1959, found in a plasma sample taken from an adult male living in the Belgian Congo. Even though nobody really knows who the first person was ever infected with HIV they believe that humans got the infection from the chimpanzees, as the HIV-1 virus is almost identical to a simian virus found in chimpanzees.

One way to protect yourself from AIDS & HIV is by using protection each time you have sexual intercourse. There are so many different types of // contraception // available like condoms, the pill, and vasectomy, female sterilization, the coil (intra-uterine device), Mirena, skin patch, the diaphragm, female condom and many more. All of these types of contraception work with helping you not get pregnant and protect you from all of the types of disease and from catching HIV. Even though these contraceptions are NOT a hundred percent accurate they do help you and most of the time they do work. One of the best way you can be sure you won’t get infected by the virus is by being ** Abstinence. **Abstinence is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy. It also prevents STDs. A lot of people don’t practice abstinence and they are at risk to get the HIV virus and other STDs or even get pregnant. That’s why the best way to be safe is to not do it at all.

A lot of people think that you can ONLY get the virus of HIV by having sexual intercourse. However, there is a lot of different ways for you to get infected with it for example, blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk and other body fluids containing blood. The only known way for HIV to be transmitted from one person to another is when it is spread from the inside of an infected person's body to the inside of another person's body. This can happen when infected fluids, such as semen, vaginal fluids, or blood are passed from one person to another. Someone can become infected even if only tiny amounts of these fluids are spread. HIV can be spread sexually from a man to a woman, a woman to a man, a man to a man, and a woman to a woman. People who inject themselves with drugs also risk infecting themselves with HIV. Many people who use needles to take intravenous drugs or steroids share the needles with others. A person with HIV who shares a needle also shares the virus, which lives in the tiny amounts of blood attached to the needle. Sharing needles also can pass hepatitis and other serious infections to another person.

How to prevent HIV or AIDS? You can prevent HIV & AIDS by avoiding contact with infected blood; the most common way to transmit ** HIV is through contact with blood from people infected with HIV. Transfusions ** or contact with open wounds can cause the virus to spread from one person to another. Another way to prevent you from getting the virus is through unprotected sexual contacts. A condom is your first line of defense to avoid getting infected with HIV. It is very important to use condoms when you have sex, it’s not only will minimize the possibility of being infected with HIV, but also can protect yourself from other sexually transmitted infections. Also, don’t have multiple sex partners. HIV and AIDS is more prevalent for people with multiple sexual partners. If you have only one sexual partner, you can dramatically minimize the chances of contracting HIV or getting AIDS. However it does not mean that you can stop using condoms, you still have to engage in protected sex even if you are faithful to your sexual partner.